Independent Networks Adrenalin Rush

---

On the Ropes

Rob / 26.05.2003

Once the morning swim was completed, the rest of the first full day of the race was all about trekking, and for some teams much of Tuesday will be as well. The first big trekking stage was 60km broken into 4 sections between manned PC’s and it took teams into open country where they saw no one and no habitations for hours on end.

The first run was 10 km , then came another 25km across much higher ground where there was some difficult bog, but this walk on the wild side was only leading up to the crossing of Liathach, a mountain which rears steeply up from sea level and looks almost impossible to climb. However, there is a way up through the rock ramparts onto a pinnacle capped ridge and teams took this, stopping on the way to complete the Jumar stage.

This was to one side of the path, on a 20m high cliff overlooking the valley far, far below. It wasn’t until late afternoon that the leaders approached, picking a way through the many small cliffs on the mountain side to reach PC13 at the foot of the 4 jumar ropes. The North Face were first to arrive and stop to pull on the harnesses and helmets they’d carried all day. As they did so it began to rain, the cloud closed in and the impressive views and sense of exposure were lost.

It was difficult to get onto the ropes as they had too much stretch, and the route description at he top wasn’t much help either. It said, “Follow the obvious gully …�, not a lot of help when visibility is only a few feet. The lead team moved up the ropes smoothly enough, but Keith Byrne was lagging behind and was clearly suffering a low point. He said he was on autopilot.

Ski Sharp said their plan was to keep going as long as the daylight lasted and maybe sleep on the next trekking stage but not at the Red Bull Stimulation Station where they would have access to gear boxes again. Before that though they had to traverse the ridge above, and leaving their helmets on they set off into the gloom to find the obvious gully.

About an hour later whistles and calls alerted marshals to the fact OK Adventure Sport Renault could not find a way through the crags to the jumar ropes. It was very difficult now the cloud had set in, and potentially dangerous so someone went to help them and put out markers for the following teams. As she prepared team captain Aurelie Villar said they’d found one very boggy section of the run hard, but that everyone was in good spirits. They too really struggled with the ropes stretching. Christophe Bignot stepped into his slings, stood up and promptly bounced back down the hillside, finishing up a couple of metres below his start point.See All Event Posts